WASHINGTON — Companies that are developing small launch vehicles or who provide rideshare launch services say they expect new Chinese launch vehicles to drive down launch prices, raising concerns among some of unfair competition. During a panel discussion at the Satellite 2018 conference here March 12, executives of several launch providers said they expected small launchers under development or entering service in China, either by state-owned enterprises or private ventures, to sharply reduce launch prices in the coming years. “I think the Chinese are going to drive an order of…

This article originally appeared in the Feb. 12, 2018 issue of SpaceNews magazine. The surge of new space companies in the last few years has impressed even veteran industry observers. “I’ve never seen the interest level so high to start new businesses,” said Hoyt Davidson, managing partner of investment banking company Near Earth LLC. “It’s a renaissance, a potential space renaissance.” Davidson, speaking on a panel about space investment at the Federal Aviation Administration’s annual Commercial Space Transportation Conference in Washington Feb. 8, cited the formation of dozens of new…

WASHINGTON — Spaceflight Industries said March 6 that the first operational satellite for its BlackSky Earth imaging constellation is now complete and awaiting launch later this year. The 55-kilogram Global-1 satellite is the first of four satellites, each capable of producing imagery at a resolution of one meter, that Spaceflight plans to launch in the next year on U.S. and foreign vehicles, although the company did not disclose specific launch plans. The Global satellites build upon a demonstration satellite, Pathfinder, launched in September 2016. The BlackSky Global-1 satellite. Credit: Spaceflight…

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A startup company has raised $18 million to provide broadband internet access from space using small satellites in geostationary orbit. San Francisco-based Astranis announced the Series A funding round March 1 led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Others participating in the funding round include Y Combinator, Fifty Years, Refactor Capital and Indicator Fund. The funding will go towards the development of the first in what the company plans to be dozens of smallsats that can each provide up to 10 gigabits per second…

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California — Companies that collect data beamed down from small satellites say they expect partnerships and mergers will stem the rising number of new entrants offering ground station services in their market. Around half a dozen startups have popped up in the past few years offering ground station services for smallsats, Natalie Bednar, Swedish Space Corp.’s (SSC) business development director, said Feb. 7 at the SmallSat Symposium here. Those companies present a challenge to incumbent providers SSC and Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT), which have both been around for…

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California — Planet and Spire, operators of the two largest commercial cubesat constellations in orbit, say they manage their fleets to prevent retired spacecraft from lingering in space beyond internationally accepted guidelines. Speaking at the SmallSat Symposium here Feb. 7, officials from Planet and Spire said the companies have self-imposed rules to ensure their satellites burn up in Earth’s atmosphere within 25 years of shutting down, as suggested by the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination (IADC) committee. Earth-observation company Planet has 200 satellites in low Earth orbit, making its…

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California — The European Space Agency on Feb. 8 announced five companies will study potential small launch vehicles for the agency’s Future Launchers Preparatory Programme (FLPP). ArianeGroup, MT Aerospace, European Launch Vehicle, Deimos and PLD Space are all proposing “microlaunchers” for dedicated missions to low-Earth orbit that can be “economically viable,” and “commercially self-sustaining” but “without public funding,” ESA said. “A European commercial microlauncher can meet the growing need for dedicated launch services to companies with small satellites,” Jerome Breteau, manager of ESA’s Future Launchers Preparatory Programme,” said…

This op-ed originally appeared in the Jan. 29, 2018 issue of SpaceNews magazine. For the Earth-observation industry, 2017 was an eventful year. Several trends emerged that could transform the market landscape as profoundly as the proliferation of smallsats already have. We witnessed significant investments in Earth-observation startups leveraging machine learning and other forms of artificial intelligence, or AI, to extract invaluable insights from the growing abundance of satellite imagery.We also saw the continued transition of Earth-observation satellite operators from merely selling imagery to selling value-added services. Last year, startups building…

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California — SoftBank is actively considering future investments in the satellite industry, including investments related to low-Earth orbit broadband startup OneWeb, the head of SoftBank’s merger and acquisition and corporate finance division said today. Alex Clavel, executive vice president at SoftBank, said the Japanese tech giant, which in December 2016 invested $1 billion in OneWeb, is “very actively looking at new opportunities for OneWeb,” as well as “new opportunities throughout the smallsat space, and advances in manufacturing and communications.” OneWeb is building a first-generation constellation of 900 high-throughput,…

WARSAW, Poland — U.K.-based Skyrora has unveiled plans to host a suborbital test flight in the fourth quarter of 2018. As part of its strategy to meet the rising demand for small satellite launches in a cost-effective manner, the company aims to set up a facility to launch smallsats from Scotland. Daniel Smith, business development manager at Skyrora, tells SpaceNews that the company is in the process of finalizing the suborbital build and will be testing its engine in the U.K. during the first quarter of 2018. “Things are moving…